More than a year after closed-door talks began around a proposed stadium that would displace thousands of low-income residents, the City of San Antonio held its first public hearing.  COPS/Metro clergy and leaders decried the secrecy of negotiations and displacement of low-income families, while questioning whether the plan would actually come at no cost to taxpayers. 

Leaders presented Council a list of demands: community benefits that would ease the transition for thousands of Soap Factory Apartment residents, guarantee a place to return upon completion of the development, include provisions for affordable housing as part of the redevelopment and ensure living wages for workers involved in the project.  Councilmember Pelaez responded from the dais, calling the list of demands "not unreasonable requests" and urging their consideration by Council.   

According to the San Antonio Express-News, "city officials pushed the vote back a week [to next Thursday] because of sharp questions about the deal from the public and some council members."

[Photo Credit: Jessica Phelps, San Antonio Express-News]

Council Vote on Ballpark Deal Pushed to Sept. 12 after Backlash, San Antonio Express-News

'Kicking the Community Out': Proposal for Missions Ballpark Development Draws Criticism, Concern, San Antonio Express-News [pdf]

City Council Makes Added Demands to Downtown Ballpark Deal That Will Displace Renters, San Antonio Report [pdf]  

COPS/Metro Testimony Starts at 48:59, City of San Antonio Special Meeting 

[Excerpt]

...the City of San Antonio in partnership with District 3 Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran and COPS Metro are giving away free gun safety boxes.

People can get the boxes from 9-11 a.m. on Saturday at Southside Lions Senior Center, 3303 Pecan Valley Drive.

In a news conference on Tuesday, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said the City secured $200,000 to purchase 4,000 gun safety lock boxes to be distributed in the community.

[In photo: COPS/Metro leader Rev. Rob Mueller of Divine Redeemer Presbyterian Church.]

City of San Antonio Set to Give Away Free Gun Safe Boxes This Weekend, KSAT [pdf]

On May 4-5, more than 150 ministry leaders, women religious, clergy, and seminarians from 31 congregations participated in 'Recognizing the Stranger’ parish leadership development in collaboration with the Archdiocese of San Antonio. The sessions were conducted in English and Spanish and included visitors from IAF sister organization Citizen’s UK who came to learn more about the neighborhoods transformed by COPS' efforts. 

In opening remarks, Bishop Gary Janak expressed his gratitude to the participants and encouraged them to continue building the body of Christ.

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[Excerpt]

COPS/Metro Alliance is calling for people to participate in the Memorial to the Lost, which aims to recognize all the lives lost to gun violence in Bexar County over the last five years....

Organizers hope to line the streets surrounding the Alamodome with the T-shirts ahead of and during the gun buyback, Pastor Robert Mueller of Divine Redeemer Presbyterian Church told the San Antonio Report last week. They also hope it will spread to other major Texas cities, and they plan to take the shirts to the state capitol to advocate for gun control legislation.

“Almost three-quarters of voters of every persuasion support about three to four common gun safety laws that are not about taking guns away from anybody,” said Mueller, who is a member of COPS/Metro Alliance.

“It’s about elevating the responsibility of gun ownership.”

[Photo Credit: Mark Felix, AFP via Getty Images]

Faith Groups Step Up to Work on San Antonio's Gun Violence Problem, San Antonio Report [pdf]

Guns for Groceries: San Antonio Aims to Take Weapons Off the Street in Exchange for Gift Cards, San Antonio Express News

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COPS/Metro Alliance, the longtime coalition that advocates for working families and is in many ways responsible for the program’s existence, continues to raise concerns.

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"Our state legislators cannot muster the courage to act on the will of the people. Why? They fear the vocal minorities who have made gun possession an idol worthy of greater reverence than the lives of our fellow citizens. This is an abomination before God.

Frustrated by the cowardice and inaction of the state legislators, San Antonio congregations are now working to reduce gun violence. Under the banner of COPS/Metro Alliance, 175 church leaders united to ask city of San Antonio and Bexar County leadership to create a public education campaign emphasizing gun owners’ responsibility to store their firearms safely and to provide safe handgun storage boxes for vehicles.

It’s past time for lawmakers to come to their senses and listen to the residents they represent."

[Photo Credit: Pictures Left: Rev. Rob Mueller. Sam Owens, San Antonio Express News]

Texas Lawmakers Fail the Courage Test on Guns, San Antonio Express News [pdf]

[Excerpt]

A surprising legislative success in 2021 is on track to be undone in 2023, unless a grass roots left-right coalition can block legislation and the forces behind it that are trying to go backward....

In the name of jobs and economic development, a 2012 tax code trick called Chapter 313 essentially funneled state money, via school district property tax breaks, to private companies doing new industrial construction. The school districts that granted tax breaks under Chapter 313 were reimbursed — and many still are being reimbursed — by the state, meaning we as taxpayers reimbursed them. It was the ultimate insider game of channeling public benefit to private companies.

The [Texas] Industrial Areas Foundation cleverly brought a man dressed as Dracula to its rally to dramatize how Chapter 313 unfairly drained school districts of funds and that reviving this bad economic development deal would be akin to raising the undead.

At a national gathering of Catholic Social Ministers organized by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), COPS/Metro's work with San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller was featured prominently in plenary sessions and a workshop around local organizing for gun safety reform. 

During a panel discussion with the Archbishop, Josephine Lopez-Paul shared how COPS/Metro worked with the San Antonio Archdiocese in the aftermath of the massacre at Uvalde in 2022.  The Archbishop made an impassioned plea to infuse love into a "culture of death" through faithful participation in the political process around issues impacting life, including gun safety reforms. 

[Excerpt from San Antonio Report]

U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh heaped praise on San Antonio’s city government for its expansive workforce development program, often called the largest of its kind in the country.  He said he wishes the federal government could do more.

At a roundtable discussion with local industry leaders and city officials Monday, Walsh called SA Ready to Work — the city’s $230 million program aiming to train thousands of low-wage workers for middle-class careers over the next five years — innovative and exemplary for its heavy collaboration with industry leaders.....

SA Ready to Work opened for enrollment in May, though many pre-registered. In the nearly four months since then, slightly more than 5,400 applicants have signed up — nearly fulfilling what the city anticipated to be enrollment through its entire first year.

Outpacing both contractors so far is Project Quest, the jobs training nonprofit that [like SA Ready to Work] sprang out of COPS/Metro.  Project Quest is managing the cases of 112 participants.

[Photo Credit: Alamo Colleges]

Labor Secretary Would Like to See Bigger Federal Investments in Ready to Work, San Antonio Report [pdf]

U.S. Secretary of Labor visits the Alamo Colleges District, Alamo Colleges District [pdf]